The long-awaited story add-on for Batman: Arkham Origins has finally hit digital stores from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Cold, Cold Heart is the action-packed DLC set during New Year’s Eve in Gotham City and sheds light on the tragic origin story of Mr. Freeze. Players will discover how Freeze earned his place as one of Gotham City’s greatest villains. It is available on the PSN, Xbox Live Games Store and STEAM for $ 9.99. Players who have purchased the Batman: Arkham Origins Season Pass can of course download it at no additional charge.

New locations including Wayne Manor and GothCorp will be introduced in the Cold, Cold Heart Story Add-On. It will take players on an ice-cold journey as Victor Fries encounters Batman for the first time. To prepare players for the new challenges that await Batman, access has been granted to all new gadgets including Thermocharged Batarangs and Thermal Gloves. In typical Batman fashion, not wanting to be caught off guard and under gunned, Batman will be equipped with his powerful Extreme Environment (XE) suit to take down Mr. Freeze and his Cryo-thugs in hours of new story content.

Set several years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins, developed by WB Games Montréal, is based on DC Comics’ core Batman license and introduces an original prequel storyline. Taking place before the rise of Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals, the game features an expanded Gotham City and showcases a young and unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight.

Available now for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and Windows PC, Batman: Arkham Origins is the latest installment in the blockbuster Batman: Arkham video game franchise.

If this isn’t enough content to keep you occupied for a while and you haven’t already picked them up, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is also available for the PlayStation Vita and the Nintendo 3DS. In addition, the HD version, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate – Deluxe Edition, isnow available for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC.

Klei Entertainment’s turn-based espionage game Invisible, Inc remains in alpha testing, but to whet players’ appetites, the developer has cobbled together the above trailer to demonstrate the additions found in the game’s latest update.

Warner Bros. is giving us a first look at the setup and cinematic for Batman: Arkham Origins story DLC. As suspected, Mr. Freeze is the starring villain in the Cold, Cold Heart expansion.

The story takes place on New Year’s Eve, and Batman will need some new toys in order to combat Freeze and his henchmen. The new extreme-condition suit is one of Alfred’s prototypes, and we’re sure he’ll object to Batman taking it into combat early.

Cold, Cold Heart is an open-world, narrative-driven chunk of DLC for Batman: Arkham Origins, and it’s due out on April 22 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Cold, Cold Heart tells the backstory of classic Batman villain Mr. Freeze in a brand new mission, and…Joystiq RSS Feed

Yesterday was Dead Island's last day of free availability for Xbox Live Gold members. Toy Soldiers: Cold War is the new free title up for grabs.

The Games with Gold program offers two free games a month to Xbox Live Gold members with one game available at the front end of the month, and one game available at the back end. This month's freebies are Dead Island and Toy Soldiers: Cold War, and the former has been replaced by the latter.

Our TakeFree games are nice, but it's hard not to raise an eyebrow at Microsoft's free offerings compared to Sony's free PlayStation Plus titles. Our own Jeff Marchiafava said it best with a recent opinion piece about the competing online services, which you can read here.

Starting Saturday (February 1st) Dead Island (Normally US $ 19.99) will be free for Xbox Live Gold members through February 15th .

Then on February 16th, Xbox Live Gold Members can download Toy Soldiers: Cold War (Normally US $ 14.99) for free.

That sound you hear? That’s the collective ‘meh’ of Xbox 360 owners across the globe. Yesterday, we posted about the impressive list of games that playstation plus users were getting in February AND they are coming off of a January where the Ps3 got Bioshock Infinite!

Free games are free games, and both are quality games that I have enjoyed in the past. I’ll try to hold back the feelings of entitlement, but Microsoft has some work to do to be able to catch up to the competition in this category of the console war.

Microsoft’s Major Nelson has announced next month’s lineup of free games for Xbox Live Gold members, revealing that subscribers can expect to receive free copies of Toy Soldiers: Cold War and Dead Island in February.

If you live in a warmer climate, you might not be aware of the impending cold storm set to blanket the northern states. You probably don’t have to worry about the “life-threatening wind chill” that was issued by the National Weather Service, or find out that a "polar vortex" is a weather phenomenon and not an unlockable weapon in a Mega Man game.

This is a list of games you can use to empathize with those of us living in the mid-west. And if you happen to be caught in the deadly cold with us, these titles can bring what’s happening outside into your home, without the whole “life-threatening” part.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (pictured above)Not all of Uncharted 2 takes place in a cold environment, but a lot of it does. The game opens with Nathan Drake dangling from the edge of a snowy mountain in a crashed train, and it takes hours before he gets his hands on a coat. He does get his moments of tropical bliss early on, but the game’s most memorable moments take place with snow on the ground and cold in the air.

Indigo ProphecyBefore Beyond: Two Souls and before Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream released Indigo Prophecy (titled Fahrenheit outside of the United States), a murder mystery taking place in New York in January. Whenever the narrative moves outside, there is snow on the ground. There is one sequence that even involves diving into an iced-over pond. Cold is an integral component of the story, and depending on which ending you conclude with, the world could be cast in an eternal winter.

Metal Gear SolidTaking place in February, the first Metal Gear Solid brings Solid Snake to a secret base on an island off the coast of Alaska. Snake tracks his footprints in the snow, smokes cigarettes to stay warm (and find hidden security lasers), takes part in a sniper battle during a blizzard, fights Vulcan Raven in a huge refrigerator, and eventually escapes on a snowmobile. The only parts of Metal Gear Solid that aren't cold are a brief walk through a furnace and Dr. Hal Emmerich’s pants when he urinates on himself in fear.

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Dead Space 3It’s undeniably cold in space, but it doesn’t look or feel as cold as Tau Volantis, the snow-covered planet where the majority of Dead Space 3 takes place. While on the planet, series protagonist Isaac Clarke’s body temperature is displayed, showing you when his body temperature is getting too low. It allows you see and feel the cold creeping into Clarke’s suit.

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Batman: Arkham OriginsBatman’s latest video game adventure takes place on Christmas Eve during a severe winter storm warning that forces the residents of Gotham City to stay indoors and off the streets as snow blankets the city. Criminals complain about the bitter cold as Batman eavesdrops on their conversations, but not the Dark Knight. Presumably his suit has some kind of heating mechanism, because he seems completely oblivious to the fact that it is currently the dead of winter in Gotham. Batman: Arkham City also took place on the frigid streets of Gotham.

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The ThingBased on the film of the same name, The Thing takes place in Antarctica shortly after the events of the original movie. From the third-person, you’ll be tromping through the snow fighting monsters, and trying to stay warm. You can see some of the game in action by checking out the episode of Replay above.

Lost PlanetIn the first Lost Planet game, warmth is crucial to your survival. Staying alive on the planet of E.D.N. III demands that players kill bugs in order to collect energy to keep their suits functioning properly in the bitter cold. In the fiction of Lost Planet, Earth has become uninhabitable, so you’ve made your way to a new Earth-like planet, which is unfortunately currently experiencing an ice age. If the preference to Earth is a bug infested ice planet, you know things have gotten pretty rough.

Assassin's Creed IIIConnor doesn’t spend all of his time in the snow. Assassin’s Creed III progresses through the seasons, but its winter sequences present a realistic take on the trouble of moving through snow. Connor hunts, gathers, and performs all of his assassin duties even during the icy months, struggling against the frozen white stuff. Movement requires raising his knees nearly to his chest as he tries his best to sprint through the landscape. Connor’s struggle translates to an excellent representation of how cold it must have been before the days of advanced heating systems.

The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimParts of Skyrim are snow free, but considering this entry in The Elder Scrolls series exists in the northern part of Tamriel, the continent on which the series is set, the snow-free areas are less common. Whether you’re fighting dragons, simply moving from point A to B, or collecting plants, there will usually be snow under your feet, and it feels cold.

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SSXSSX is a snowboarding series, so every game and every track is cold, but the new SSX added a new layer to the coldness by adding levels from real-world locations like Antarctica, as well as dangerous freezing conditions on certain tracks. SSX is a cold series, but the latest release (2012) was easily the coldest.

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Cold WinterTechnically, the title has more to do with the Cold War than the temperature, but as far as video game titles go, you can’t get much colder than the words ‘Cold’ and ‘Winter’. We played the game on an episode of Replay as the Roulette which you can check out above.

Are there any cold games that we overlooked? Still have a little bit of warmth left in your bones? You can get in on a discussion of the best snow levels in games by heading here.

It hasn’t been easy to wait for with Company of Heroes 2. First, it’s been seven years since the original was released and achieved instant-classic status. It was a sharp change from almost everything else in real-time strategy, and cemented developer Relic’s reputation as one of the best strategy studios in PC gaming. An Eastern Front expansion or sequel seemed like a no-brainer, but Relic never got around to it, and Company of Heroes was set aside as Relic became a Warhammer 40K studio. With Relic finally returning to Company of Heroes in a sequel set against the bloody grandeur and brutality of the Eastern Front, greatness seemed preordained.

Which is probably why simple goodness feels slightly disappointing. Company of Heroes 2 just feels like More Company of Heroes. It’s still a great design, but most of its sequel’s innovations are fairly conservative, and along the way it’s also borrowing some dubious features from modern mainstream shooters, like a grindy progression system filled with perks and unlocks. Even the Eastern Front never quite comes alive. RTS games are partly powered by how well they communicate their theme, how well they connect the game you’re playing to the story it’s telling, and Company of Heroes 2 sometimes seems a little more like an Eastern Front skin than a fresh take on an old design.

It hasn’t been easy to wait for with Company of Heroes 2. First, it’s been seven years since the original was released and achieved instant-classic status. It was a sharp change from almost everything else in real-time strategy, and cemented developer Relic’s reputation as one of the best strategy studios in PC gaming. An Eastern Front expansion or sequel seemed like a no-brainer, but Relic never got around to it, and Company of Heroes was set aside as Relic became a Warhammer 40K studio. With Relic finally returning to Company of Heroes in a sequel set against the bloody grandeur and brutality of the Eastern Front, greatness seemed preordained.

Which is probably why simple goodness feels slightly disappointing. Company of Heroes 2 just feels like More Company of Heroes. It’s still a great design, but most of its sequel’s innovations are fairly conservative, and along the way it’s also borrowing some dubious features from modern mainstream shooters, like a grindy progression system filled with perks and unlocks. Even the Eastern Front never quite comes alive. RTS games are partly powered by how well they communicate their theme, how well they connect the game you’re playing to the story it’s telling, and Company of Heroes 2 sometimes seems a little more like an Eastern Front skin than a fresh take on an old design.